Prologue

Reporter Nancy Updike spends two days with Neal Smither, who cleans up crime scenes for a living, and comes away wanting to open his Los Angeles franchise, despite the gore — or maybe because of it.

Sometimes criminals return to the scene of their misdeeds — to try to make things right, to try to undo the past. Katie Davis reports on her neighbor Bobby, who returned to the scene where he robbed people and conned people.

Samantha Broun interviews her mom about surviving a brutal attack by Reginald McFadden 20 years ago, and sets out to interview friends, family and policymakers about how that attack changed Pennsylvania law regarding life sentences at the time.

Ira’s story of Yibin Li continues.

Disinformation and propaganda works differently in Putin’s Russia than it did during the Soviet Union.

Protestors came out across Russia after the Ukraine invasion.